Ok well I ordered the dual disk flavor of gentoo cause I've been wanting to try linux for a long time...

got the disk yesterday and started working on it, at first when I launched the live-cd it was all so overwhelming that I wanted to cry haha...

After just messing around with the commands and options I finally started reading the tutorial (which btw is VERY well written), after intially just screwing around and messing with how to install partions blah blah, I started moving along.

Of course I kept screwing up so it took me 4 tries to get Gentoo to actually install properly, each time I failed, when I retried I would go through the install process even faster cause I was learning so much just by using this OS.

But as you would know it I finally got past everything, prompted to exit/reboot (4th time) and restart comp/remove cd, and then wala! Gentoo starts up, 2.6.3 kernel option thingy comes up, choose the only kernel avaible to load up as OS.

Then it takes me to a black screen and asks me for user login --> root , then pass ---> xxxxx, after I log in I was reading thru the tutorial for "how to make Gentoo a more desktop like enviornment" and noticed the author was using xfree86 instead of the x86_64 like I was using.

But anyway I decided to try and see what the hell I could do anyway, so I typed:

#emerge sync

and it keeps failing to connect to host or something, which is weird cause the network was autoconfigured during live-cd and the rest of the installation.

so it said to run #emerge-webrsync if sync didn't work...

so ran webrsync and it said updated...

then tried to run #emerge xfree

then it fails to connect again...

so right now I'm left with Gentoo black screen with login prompt, how the heck am I supposed to get the more "windows" like atsmosphere working?

I know I have to emerge xfree / gnome / but how?

Any help is appreciated as I've spent the last 18 (yes real 1 hours installing/re-installing Gentoo and finally got to a new level.

I appreciate all the help you guys can give me, also I was reading up on the current issues and printed some pages out, but as of this post still have no idea how to get this thing to run a windows like atsmosphere.

If that does not work, you did not either compile your network driver into the kernel (reread the install instructions) or your did not add the module to the config file (See section 3 of install.txt).

2) Did you run the mirrorselect utility to find the closest mirrors (in the install instructions section 6.a)?_________________-----------------------------------------
Michael

Last edited by mpsii on Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:59 pm; edited 1 time in total

Ok I'm using a Linksys 4-port Cable/DSL router, thats main PC is a dell computer that I bought 4 years ago. So I never had to setup a network because it always just worked...

Now my static IP I think is 192.168.0.100
and the other thing is like 225.255.252 something like that...

I'll look it up in my linksys config...

I'll ping a website like you said and check my config, and I'm pretty sure I ran eht0 rc-update or whatever it is, I mostly used just pre-compiled packages, like I know I used the correct kernel cause I took notes the whole time and I wrote down all system specific information... and since I had to reinstall gentoo atleast 4-5 times over I got the hang of deleting/partioning/setting up stuff.

And yes I did run mirror select, and it chose fastest mirrors. I had no problem download any files after running mirror select.

enviornment" and noticed the author was using xfree86 instead of the x86_64 like I was using.

Come on, you are kidding..! The name of XFree86 has nothing to do with x86 CPUs.

PRanganathan wrote:

#emerge sync

and it keeps failing to connect to host or something, which is weird cause the network was autoconfigured during live-cd and the rest of the installation.

If Live-CD found a connection, you might try to start your dhcpcd:

Code:

/etc/init.d/dhcpcd start

If this fails you have to access your DSL modem directly. Set up rp-pppoe. Assumably it is not emerged yet, so boot your Live-CD (with network connection) again, chroot into the installed environment (as explained by the installation manual) and emerge rp-pppoe.

Since you are coming strictly from a windows background, bear with us as we try to adjust your world-view. Xfree86 is simply the X windowing system for Linux. x86-64 is the processor architecture. Now, if you got mirrorselect working, all should be well.. depending on which window manager you want to try (Gnome or KDE, you can simply say emerge gnome, or emerge kde. As the others said, you should double check your network settings (ifconfig-a, and netstat -r) to make sure you are pointed to the correct gateway. We'll be glad to answer you questions though, and look forwards to you continued successes with Gentoo!

Sorry bout not responding for a while guys, after a couple retries and deleting my whole HDisk lol... I decided to take a break for a day to go and work out blah blah blah... But I gotta say one thing, in the 18+ hours I worked on Gentoo I learned more than 7+ years in using Windows, and that I'm happy about .

And now I'm back.

Ok so in the instructions it says in the last page to just setup root passwd, everyday username #passwd everyday user, then unmount /mnt/gentoo/xxx and then reboot.

Now should I have #emerge gnome/xfree before that?

As for the network questions:

1. My network is autoconfigured, I determined this by:
(a)reading the first few lines when booting up from the livecd, it said checking for network connection or something and said [ok]
(b) I typed #ifconfig, it correctly displayed all my network details. Then I typed #ping -c 3 www.google.com and it pinged it 3 times so that worked fine.

As for the type of drivers I need, yes NForce3 uses whatever driver you have, but my Shuttle AN50R also has an Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet on it, so I use that instead of my 10/100 connection. So to properly install my ethernet I would type #emerge e1000, and it would say its masked. Which makes sense because it already said on the AMD FAQ's thing that there are files that are masked b/c developers have not tested them.

So looking from the simplest point of view I should:

1. Use FDisk to partition drives

2. Set Filesystems: AMD FAQ's thing says to stick to using ext2 and ext3 since users have had trouble getting the others to work, XFS sems to work on a few A64. Now in the installation example it says for boot that they will use ext2, now this does not have journaling and thus would take longer to load. Is it ok to use ext3 on my boot partition? My root would be ext3, and of course my swap would be swap (i guess?)

4. Now I unpack the stage: #ls /mnt/cdrom/stages, use cmd #cd /mnt/gentoo, then extract the tarball using #tar.

5. Now I unpack the portage using #ls /mount/cdrom/snapshots, and again use the tarball to unpack the portage.

6. Now I copy over the source code, #mkdir /mnt/gentoo/usr/portage/distfiles
#cp /mnt/cdrom/distfiles/* /mnt/gentoo/usr/distfiles

and since I'm using the LiveCD portage I shouldn't need to mess with /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf should I? If I should what do I need to add in terms of anything in the USE section, for example I know I want to use gnome so I would add -kde gnome and -the file for use with kde and add the file to use for gnome. Other than that do I need to say add jpeg, aim etc?

7. Now I update the mirror using #mirrorselect -a -s4 -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

#cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf

8. After updating the mirrors I chroot into /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash and run the #env-update, after I run #source /etc/profile (nothing seems to happen when I run #source /etc/profile, it that ok?)

10. Now about installing GRP, this is where I should #emerge e1000 / #emerge xfree and stuff correct? Should I also #emerge gnome here also?

11. After that step I setup timezone, and run #emerge gentoo-dev-sources, which is A64 kernel. AFter which I would run #emerge genkernel (?) then emerge hotplug, #rc-update add hotplug default. Then I type #emerge sync, it updates after it finishes this is usually where I try to #emerge e1000/#emerge emu10kl, which of course gives me the stuff is masked response, at this point should I also #emerge gnome and #emerge xfree?.

After I emerge everything I type #modules-update and it'll save everything I did.

12. Now I have a question about this command: #make && make modules_install, when I type that exactly as it is it says no target specified to install, of course I have no idea how to properly use that command if someone can clear that up for me for say making emerge install e1000.

13. Now I setup my network, just really I can call it anything I want I know. So thats no problem, but seems to be odd that I can never connect to an FTP site. Whenever I use genkernel to update it takes usually the third-fourth try for it to download, and then it would only work from an HTTP site. Any reason for this? Usually it says connected, then session timed out.

14. After getting through that I emerge grub-static, setup HD's, let grub know what my root is etc. After which I setup grub.conf, I set it up like this:

After you have finished, you will be in a shell environment. You need ro say emerge gnome, or emerge kde, or both Yes you can have both if you wish. Afterwards you need to modify /etc/rc.conf, if you want to have a graphical login (gdm or xfm or...)

Ok I'm using a Linksys 4-port Cable/DSL router, thats main PC is a dell computer that I bought 4 years ago. So I never had to setup a network because it always just worked...

Now my static IP I think is 192.168.0.100
and the other thing is like 225.255.252 something like that...

I'll look it up in my linksys config...

Change the static ip to 192.168.1.100
Set the broadcast to 192.168.1.255
Set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0
and at the very end is the gateway
Set the gateway to 192.168.1.1

That should fix your problems if you want to use a static ip.
Of course, there is a dhcp option you can use as well.

I'd still set the gateway up regardless of which config you use.
The default gentoo ip's are set to 192.168.0.1, which won't work with a linksys router, so you need to match what your router uses._________________http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=16196755 click me for cheap linux based web hosting.

1. you have a working shell (black screen, logged in, no gui)
this is good, at least your kernel is working correctly at this point.
2. when you installed gentoo initially, network was working, now it doesn't?
try editing /etc/conf.d/net (that's where you can either use dhcp or put in a static ip, subnet mask and gateway, there are suggestions from gentoo there, try changing them to what I suggested earlier)
3. you want a "windows" type environment to play in
there are many different window managers available, gnome and kde are just the larger, more popular ones. however, you must have something for them to run on, ie; xfree or freedesktop, xfree is recommended for now. I usually emerge xfree and then gnome while still booted from the cd, but it can be done either before or after the main system install.

On to your next post with all the other things.....

Quote:

1. Use FDisk to partition drives

1. cfdisk is much easier to use than plain fdisk, check it out the next time you have to change your partitions

Quote:

2. Set Filesystems: AMD FAQ's thing says to stick to using ext2 and ext3 since users have had trouble getting the others to work, XFS sems to work on a few A64. Now in the installation example it says for boot that they will use ext2, now this does not have journaling and thus would take longer to load. Is it ok to use ext3 on my boot partition? My root would be ext3, and of course my swap would be swap (i guess?)

2. ext2 on boot is ok, small partition anyways, so journaling not required (ext3 is journal type) and yes, swap is just that, swap

4. Now I unpack the stage: #ls /mnt/cdrom/stages, use cmd #cd /mnt/gentoo, then extract the tarball using #tar.

4. sounds right, just curious, what stage are you using?

Quote:

5. Now I unpack the portage using #ls /mount/cdrom/snapshots, and again use the tarball to unpack the portage.

5. right again, keep going

Quote:

6. Now I copy over the source code, #mkdir /mnt/gentoo/usr/portage/distfiles
#cp /mnt/cdrom/distfiles/* /mnt/gentoo/usr/distfiles

and since I'm using the LiveCD portage I shouldn't need to mess with /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf should I? If I should what do I need to add in terms of anything in the USE section, for example I know I want to use gnome so I would add -kde gnome and -the file for use with kde and add the file to use for gnome. Other than that do I need to say add jpeg, aim etc?

6. same as above, but I'd look at the "Use flags" docs located in the documentation section of gentoo.

Quote:

7. Now I update the mirror using #mirrorselect -a -s4 -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

#cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf

7. going good here

Quote:

8. After updating the mirrors I chroot into /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash and run the #env-update, after I run #source /etc/profile (nothing seems to happen when I run #source /etc/profile, it that ok?)

8. usually says regenerating at that point, but no biggie if it doesn't

10. Now about installing GRP, this is where I should #emerge e1000 / #emerge xfree and stuff correct? Should I also #emerge gnome here also?

10. grp is prebuilt packages, I don't use them, so I can't help here

Quote:

11. After that step I setup timezone, and run #emerge gentoo-dev-sources, which is A64 kernel. AFter which I would run #emerge genkernel (?) then emerge hotplug, #rc-update add hotplug default. Then I type #emerge sync, it updates after it finishes this is usually where I try to #emerge e1000/#emerge emu10kl, which of course gives me the stuff is masked response, at this point should I also #emerge gnome and #emerge xfree?.
After I emerge everything I type #modules-update and it'll save everything I did.

11. I'd recommend doing a manual compile of the kernel, but that's just me. Genkernel works just fine and is easier. You can try doing "emerge --usepkg e1000" and the same for the other if it's masked, I think that will work. gnome and xfree can be done at any point after the kernel has been compiled, but do xfree first between the two. Also, make sure that x actually starts before you get too carried away and start with emerging gnome or kde. There's a pretty good tutorial on it somewhere around here, I just don't remember where at off the top of my head.

Quote:

12. Now I have a question about this command: #make && make modules_install, when I type that exactly as it is it says no target specified to install, of course I have no idea how to properly use that command if someone can clear that up for me for say making emerge install e1000.

12. make && make modules_install is for manually compiling the kernel. If you use genkernel, that command is NOT required, as genkernel does it all for you. More than likely, if you emerged the e1000 pkg before the kernel, it's installed as a module for you by genkernel. Not sure on this one tho.

Quote:

13. Now I setup my network, just really I can call it anything I want I know. So thats no problem, but seems to be odd that I can never connect to an FTP site. Whenever I use genkernel to update it takes usually the third-fourth try for it to download, and then it would only work from an HTTP site. Any reason for this? Usually it says connected, then session timed out.

13. at this point, are you stiil on the live-cd or have you rebooted? the network should still be running correctly if you are still on the cd, and if all the emerged packages so far haven't had problems downloading, then I'm not sure what to say.

Quote:

14. After getting through that I emerge grub-static, setup HD's, let grub know what my root is etc. After which I setup grub.conf, I set it up like this:

14. that all looks right, mine's a little different, but each system is

Quote:

15. After saving grub.conf I would add syslog-ng to the default, and finally set root passwd, make everyday user unmount all that /mnt/gentoo/xxx stuff, and reboot.

15. looks good, I assume the reboot goes just fine and that gets you back to a command line login and no gui. If you emerged xfree earlier, you should know about start x and some other commands (all in that xfree tutorial I mentioned) and if you haven't emerged it, now would be the time to do so, along with whatever window manager you want to use.

Quote:

16. After doing all that I should automatically be in a Gnome enviorment or do I need to type #emerge gnome?

16. see above

Quote:

EDIT: Oh yeah does it matter whether I use Gnome/KDE? Which better for nub linux like me? And what else would I need to emerge for my setup to work properly?

the edit: gnome is smaller and will take less time to compile, but both work very well. I personally like kde better, but it's all about choice and preference. You can run both on the same system, just not at the same time, ie; log into either one. There are lots of other options out there besides those two window managers, like icewm, enlightenment, blackbox, etc. so look around for more info and screenshots to see what you might like better.

and the last post:

Quote:

Will setting up the router configs like that fix my not being able to connect to FTP servers?

This isn't really the router being configured, it's the gentoo system itself. I forgot to ask, are you on cable or dsl, because Joe had a valid point about the pppoe if you're on dsl. I'm on cable, so I don't run into this particular problem myself. I've never had to run the mirrorselect option myself either, I usually just get connected to oregonstate.edu and pull about 300 KB/ps down from it and I'm halfway across the country from there.

If any of my answers help, great! If they don't, let us know and maybe things can be clarified a little better for you. _________________http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=16196755 click me for cheap linux based web hosting.

In a nutshell, it's like this:
emerge xfree
env-update && source /etc/profile
/usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config (runs you thru the config, may take a little playing with to get it right)
rc-update add xfs default
/etc/init.d/xfs start
startx (gets you a really really ugly window manager)

If all goes well, use ctrl-alt-backspace to kill the x server.
Then emerge a window manager, such as gnome or kde.
Both operations take a while, so be prepared for a bit of a wait.

There's quite a bit more to configuring x, so read the doc/install guide for more pointers.